This week Jane Horne will be hosting the chat from the @RCOT_NP account (RCOT Specialist Section for Neurological Practice).  Jane has been the Research and Development lead on the National Executive Committee for six years.  About to complete her term of office, the opportunity to facilitate this week’s #OTalk is timely. Shaping the growth and development of the specialist sections research and development roles, is key to ensure members have the opportunity to easily access research activities in their area of expertise. Ultimately, leading to a research active community.

The  Royal College of Occupational Therapy’s strategic, two year, research and review is drawing to a close and will culminate in the publication of a New RCOT Research and Development Strategy 2019-2024 (Autumn 2019). The strategy aims to inform, guide and direct the development of research in the occupational therapy profession in the UK.

Capturing members ideas on how we work together to achieve the overall aim of building a culture of research capacity within our profession, is essential. Using the best evidence to provide effective and efficient occupational therapy to deliver best practice, for the benefit of the people we treat, is why we do the jobs we do.

‘When clinicians and healthcare organisations engage with research there is the likelihood of improvement in their health care performance, even when that has not been the primary aim of the research.’ (1)

Occupational Therapists have a professional duty to use national guidelines to underpin daily practice and engage in research.  However, in reality, our busy clinical working lives often prevent us from doing this. It is easy to see research as a separate entity, something that academics do, and not that relevant when you are managing a busy caseload or service.

The aim of this #OTalk is to explore how specialist sections might help you navigate through this research agenda.  What can the specialist sections do for you? What do they do already that you may not be aware of?  Exploring how to better connect with our members to help them to develop their skills and knowledge in research and research activities, is important. Your thoughts and opinions would help guide our activities and help you to get the most out of your membership.

Here are some questions to consider during #OTalk chat to help facilitate discussion:

References:

1.​Boaz A, Hanney S, Jones T, Soper B. Does the engagement of clinicians and organisations in research improve healthcare performance: a three-stage review. BMJ open. 2015;5(12):e009415.

POST CHAT

Host: Jane Horne will be hosting the chat from the @RCOT_NP account (RCOT Specialist Section for Neurological Practice).

OTalk Account: @preston_jenny

On Line Transcript

#OTalk Healthcare Social Media Transcript October 1st 2019

The Numbers

1.762M Impressions
291 Tweets
37 Participants
129 Avg Tweets/Hour
8 Avg Tweets/Participant

#OTalk Participants

This week Ailie Turton and Louise Clark will be hosting the chat from the @RCOT_NP account (RCOT Specialist session for Neurologic Practice.) Here’s what they have to say,

Unilateral spatial inattention (often referred to as ‘neglect’) is a common cognitive effect of stroke. Spatial inattention will be the preferred term used in this #OTalk as ‘neglect’ is not liked by people who have personal experience of the problem.

The Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) 26% of stroke admissions screened positive for spatial inattention. It is a syndrome of impaired spatial awareness, in which patients have difficulty directing attention to one side; affecting their awareness of the body or the environment. Presence of spatial inattention in the early weeks is associated with poor long-term outcomes with decreased likelihood of living independently, increasing burden on informal carers and economic costs.

It is frequently Occupational Therapists in stroke teams who identify the presence of spatial inattention. Subsequently they may be influential in determining the therapy provision for those patients. They will also be able to put into place treatments and compensatory strategies to help some patients with poor attention.

The aim of this #OTalk is to explore how spatial inattention is identified, how it effects therapy provision, and what strategies Occupational Therapists use to help patients with spatial inattention to overcome their inattention and improve their independence in activities.

This #OTalk has been hosted by Ailie Turton and Louise Clark from the Stroke Forum of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section for Neurological practice, in response to member feedback for topics. We hope you enjoy it and carry on the conversations in your workplace.

Questions:

How do you explain spatial inattention to patients/family and are there any resources you use to assist this?

How do you think spatial inattention or spatial neglect affects engagement in Occupational Therapy?

How do you screen or assess patients for spatial inattention?

What strategies and interventions do you use to help people to attend to their body or space around them?
We would ask participants to look out for 3 short feedback questions posted with the transcript in the week following this #OTalk. We’d really appreciate your feedback in helping us evaluate and plan our sessions.

Ailie Turton and Louise Clark

Post Chat updates:

Online transcript click here

PDF of transcript #OTalk Healthcare Social Media Transcript September 24th 2019

The Numbers

1.022MImpressions
275Tweets
52Participants

My name is Margaret Spencer @margaretOT360 I have been qualified for almost 35 years, and I am as passionate, motivated and enthusiastic about the profession as I was when I started my training in 1982.

I work a couple of days a week as a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, and the rest of the time I provide occupational therapy professional supervision. I also run relationships and sexuality workshops for Love2meetu a dating agency for people with learning disabilities. It’s safe to say occupational therapy is the lens through which I view life.

In the early years of my career, I spent a whole year without seeing or talking to another occupational therapist(it was before technology arrived). I delivered occupational therapy in a day centre in Peterborough. After a year as a band 5, all the other qualified Occupational Therapy staff (3) moved on and I was left to manage 15 occupational therapy support staff, delivering a service to 50 people with a learning disability. I was 22 and it was a baptism of fire that I survived.

When I finally had professional supervision I had been qualified for over five years, had moved jobs and locations 3 times.These days thankfully we should all be having regular supervision, I now pay for my own invaluable supervision.

I deliver professional supervision to over 60 occupational therapists, from every different clinical background you can think of, right across the country from Aberdeen to Guernsey. They include newly qualified band 5’s to Directors of Services. Each supervision session is unique, in frequency, duration and content. At the heart of every session is the high standard delivery of occupational therapy.

I use the Proctor model of supervision which covers the normative, formative and restorative aspects of professional life. So supervision for my occupational therapists is a safe space to reflect, off load, regroup, explore problems, identify solutions, explore work life balance, review current standards of practice and guidelines and have their clinical work linked to HCPC standards.

Working with Occupational Therapists, undertaking on the University of Derby and Sheffield Hallam University APPLE placement educator training course, as part of the workshop activity we looked at the use of supervision within placements, the educators were asked to identify, from their personal experiences, what they saw as positive supervision experiences and best practice and then to identify poor experiences and things to be avoided. This information was gathered from educators over three courses and was reviewed to identify themes.

The themes relating to best practice identified were the need for it to be positive

and motivating, organised, to be developmental, for there to be good communication, for it to be given dedicated time and take place in an appropriate environment.

The themes relating to poor supervision, with themes identified around supervision being negative and critical, unstructured, not being prioritised and given time or being cancelled, there being poor communication and taking place in inappropriate environments. Further issues included breaches of confidentiality and an imbalance of power.

Questions

1. How often do you have professional supervision, and how long does your session last?

2. What is the most important thing to you about having professional supervision?

3. What do you see as the difference between mentoring and supervision?

4. Do you use a model to underpin your supervision?

5. How does having regular supervision make a difference to your practice?

6. Does it make an difference having supervision from another person who is not an occupational therapist?

7. How do you link the outcomes of supervision to your HCPC requirements?

Post chat updates

Online transcript here

PDF of transcript:

#OTalk Healthcare Social Media Transcript September 10th 2019

The Numbers

1.457MImpressions
432Tweets
63Participants

#OTalk Participants

References

Davys A and Beddoe L (2010) Best Practice in Professional Supervision A Guide for the Helping Professions Jessica Kingsley Publishers London

Hawkins P and Shohert (2012) Supervision in the Helping Professions fourth edition Open University Press Maidenhead

Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) (2017) Continuing Professional Development and Your Registration. London: Health and Care Professions Council

Healey J and Spencer M (2008) Surviving your placement in Health and Social Care

A Student Handbook Open University Press Maidenhead

Thomas N T (2013) Solution-Focused Supervision A Resource-Orientated Approach to Developing Clinical Expertise Springer New York